Diamonds Are Forever
by em2706
Summary: The Embassy might not have changed Alex, but it definitely changed his perception. Alex Shelley/Prince Nana slash, set in early 2006.


Alex heaved Jimmy unceremoniously off his shoulders, smirking at the pained grunt as Jimmy landed heavily on top of his overstuffed bag. If he'd been less of a friend, Alex would have moved the bag off the bed before disposing of Jimmy, but somehow, the more he liked someone, the more it amused Alex to see them suffer.

Alex had liked Jimmy in an offhanded sort of way ever since they'd first met, but it wasn't until Alex had joined the Embassy that they'd really become friends. The age of kayfabe was largely dead and buried - at least the parts of it that decreed you had to be in character at all times when you were in public, and could only be seen with people whose characters' alignments and goals closely matched that of your own - but still, people often ended up spending a lot of their time with their tag partners or stablemates. It was convenient, and teammates often had plenty of work-related things to discuss while they were hanging out. When Alex had joined the Embassy, Jimmy and Nana had become his drinking buddies and often his roomies, as well as being the guys he bullied people with when he was in character. Oman, Diablo, Jade and Fast Eddie were part of that too, at least initially, but Alex, Nana and Jimmy were the core of the group. Alex could have done a lot worse; Nana and Jimmy were good people whose company he enjoyed.

"Thanks, bro." Roddy shot Alex a smile. "I'd have thrown my back out trying to get him up here alone."

"No problem." Alex returned the smile and looked down at Jimmy; being dragged back to the hotel and dumped onto his bed hadn't stirred him from drunken unconsciousness at all, and he was already drooling on the bedclothes. Despite that, the babyface he'd been both blessed and cursed with made him look sort of innocent. "I swear to God, sometimes he looks like he's eleven years old."

Roddy snorted with laughter. "I know. Kinda disturbing, when you remember that half an hour ago he was waving his dick in that stripper's face."

Alex smiled again, but he didn't offer any comment. He was coming to look at strippers and other sex workers in a new light, but his changing viewpoint was something he was happy to keep to himself. "Well, now that I've deposited the crown jewel, I'm off to get some shut eye. Try not to smother him with a pillow when his raucous snoring starts up, okay?"

Roddy winced. "Not gonna lie to you, I'll be glad when this weekend's over, and I'm never rooming with him again. Last night I thought a train was running through the hotel room."

Grinning, Alex made his way to the door. "Be grateful you've never roomed with Jacobs, he makes this awful whining noise through his nose. A lot like when he's awake, actually. There's just something about Jimmys that makes you want to kill them in their sleep."

"Yeah, well, see you in the morning, assuming I'm not in jail."

Alex waved condescendingly over his shoulder as he left the room, pulling the door closed behind him. Outside, he started walking toward the stairs at the end of the hallway.

People sometimes made hyperbolic statements about the effects their membership in a particular group had on them, but joining the Embassy really had changed Alex's life. Not on the surface - he still lived in Detroit (embarrassingly, still in his parents' basement, but he was away so much it didn't seem like it would be worth the effort to move out), still drew during every spare second, still maintained all his old social circle. Beneath all that though, Alex had a new perspective on the world.

It wasn't because of Jimmy, Alex mused as he began to climb the stairs at a very leisurely pace. Jimmy was great, and they'd roomed together in Alex's early Embassy days. Apart from Jimmy's horrific snoring, it had been fun, and Alex often looked back on the ridiculous antics of those nights affectionately. Jimmy was great, but he was a lot like the rest of the guys. A good friend, but not someone who had a profound effect on your life.

Nana, on the other hand... a lot of people didn't realise it, but Prince Nana wasn't just a gimmick. Alex didn't know about the royalty part, though Nana insisted it was true, but he definitely came from money. While the onscreen talk of palaces was an exaggeration, Nana had a really, really nice place, clearly very expensive, and he threw money around like he was Ric Flair, only without all the debt and delusion.

Alex remembered with a smile how he'd stared at Nana's house in awe the first time he'd been there. It wasn't as if he'd been raised on a chicken farm in Delaware and had never seen big houses before, but it was jarring to be confronted with the evidence that one of his friends was officially, honestly, Scrooge McDuck rich. He'd wanted to ask Nana if he had a room full of money to roll around in, and whether he could have a turn too.

He'd been there on a job of sorts. Nana had flipped through his sketchpad while he was in the bathroom one night, and before he'd had chance to complain about the violation of his privacy, Nana had gushed enthusiastically about his talent and insisted he should put it to professional use. His protests that he wasn't that good were waved away, and somehow Nana managed to commission him to paint a mural without Alex ever actually agreeing to it.

Alex had been apprehensive about the job, and became even more so when he saw the size of the wall he was meant to be working on. When Nana had said it would be a wall in his study, Alex had pictured something fairly small - but he'd never been to Nana's house before, and the size of the study in question was something of a surprise. Alex had protested again, pointing out that he normally worked in pencils or charcoal, or very occasionally oil pastels, and that while painting a mural on a small wall was a little intimidating and might not end well, trying to paint one on the wall of Nana's expansive study would almost certainly be a disaster. Once again, Nana had waved away his concerns, saying that if it went horribly wrong it could just be painted over. He'd told Alex that he had faith in his ability, and to humour him by trying. Even if it turned out badly, Alex would get to stay in Nana's opulent house for a few days while he worked, with every luxury he could ask for at his fingertips.

Though he was dubious, Alex had agreed. For the first two days, he'd worked on the mural while Nana sat at his desk, slogging laboriously through a ton of paperwork - apparently _staying_ rich was more work than it looked. Occasionally Nana would offer compliments, or point out areas of the growing mural that he particularly liked, and Alex began to feel it was turning out fairly well after all. In the evenings, they watched movies on Nana's unspeakably large TV while Alex drank expensive, imported German beer. Alex had felt he was benefitting enormously, both from his increasing confidence in his artistic skill and from the somewhat decadent break from the mundanity of his own life. Nana's house was certainly a far cry from his parents' basement.

The third day had been different. Alex had rolled out of bed around noon, as usual, but when he went into the study to start work, he found Nana waiting for him, leaning against the edge of the desk and wearing a smile that immediately reminded Alex of a shark. Near his hand on the desk sat a small pile of cash. Without a trace of embarrassment or unease, Nana had announced that he had a proposition for Alex - three hundred dollars in exchange for Alex doing his painting for the day naked.

Alex probably would have exhibited some kind of surprise if he'd been more awake, but at that point in the day, being surprised seemed like far too much effort. It didn't entirely make sense to him; Nana had seen him naked plenty of times. Granted, those times had all been in locker rooms, but just repeating the experience in private didn't seem to Alex like something worth shelling out three hundred bucks for.

He'd spent a few moments looking from Nana to the money and back again, but the decision wasn't really a hard one to make. He'd been nude in front of Nana before, so it wasn't like he'd be doing anything new. If anything, it was a little weird that Nana wanted to pay him for it, but the money would certainly come in handy. Sure, he'd been working for TNA again for a while, but that was still only three more days' work a month. It wasn't like he was making money hand over fist, and his car had been making some worrying noises lately. An extra three hundred dollars wouldn't give him security, but it would still help. Most importantly, he knew exactly what would happen if he refused - nothing. Nana was his friend, and if Alex declined his offer, their friendship wouldn't change in the slightest. Nana was a man of principles, even if they weren't always in line with everyone else's.

Alex hadn't acknowledged Nana's proposal verbally. Instead, he'd reached for the money and stuffed it into the pocket of his jeans before tugging his T-shirt up over his head. He'd left his clothes in a pile on the floor, and although he'd felt a little self-conscious when he picked up his painting from where he'd left off the day before, it wasn't long before that slight unease was gone. He could almost feel Nana's eyes on him, and while it was admittedly odd, it was innocuous and entirely undemanding. Alex didn't have a problem with it; he was more bothered by the fact that he wasn't bothered by it.

Nana made no secret of his admiration for Alex's body, but he conducted himself the same way he had the previous two days. He flattered Alex's artwork while working diligently through his paperwork. Eventually, Alex was barely even aware of his state of undress, engrossed as he was in the mural and comfortable as he was with Nana. When they'd both finished up for the day, Alex had put his clothes back on and they'd spent the evening the same way they had the previous two. Nothing had changed.

It took two more days to complete the mural, and Alex made another six hundred dollars he hadn't been expecting when he'd first been railroaded into accepting Nana's commission. On the final day, Nana had begun to comment on Alex's body as well as the mural, and when Alex left the following morning, Nana made it apparent that if Alex was interested, he'd very much like to continue what he called their 'business relationship'.

Alex realised with a smile that he'd been standing at the top of the stairs for several minutes, staring into space while the events of that week played out in his head. Turning on his heel, he started down the hallway, his gait slow and relaxed. While he was in no particular hurry, he had no fear of what awaited him either. Fear, or even mild trepidation, had never played a part in his dealings with Nana; if anything, Alex was surprised at how casual the whole thing had been. Nana had been offhand and low key when he'd suggested that Alex room with him more often rather than with Jimmy, and the first time Alex had emerged from the bathroom to find three hundred dollars on the nightstand while Nana kept his distance, it had been perfectly clear that once again, Nana would accept whatever decision Alex made without question or resentment.

It had been inevitable that at some point Nana would add more money to the pile. The first time, all Nana had asked for was to touch Alex in completely non-sexual ways, in exchange for another hundred dollars. It was no big deal, and Alex could see no reason why that should be a problem, so he'd readily agreed. Of course, from there it had escalated bit by bit, and Alex didn't balk at any of it until the first time Nana put a potential price on making use of Alex's mouth. The handjobs hadn't really given him pause for thought - he figured it was something he did all the time anyway, and the fact that the dick in his hand wasn't his own wasn't all that important. To Alex, it wasn't something that felt intrusive.

A blowjob was a different kettle of fish altogether. By that point though, the money was becoming very attractive. Diamonds really _were_ forever - money was not a crucial part of life in itself, but dealing with ups and downs in relationships, or the loss of family members, or sudden career changes were a damn sight easier when your stability was assured. Alex had everything he needed by then, but he was aware that by becoming a wrestler he'd put himself into a career he couldn't reasonably hope to maintain until normal retirement age, and it didn't come with a pension plan either. If he could use his body now to secure himself in his old age, he couldn't see any sensible reason not to do it.

The fact that he and Nana were genuine friends made a big difference. He knew Nana wouldn't make demands on him, and nothing about giving in to Nana so far had made him feel even vaguely negative about himself or what he was doing. So he'd agreed to Nana's suggestion once again, and when he actually did it, he found it was less of an issue than he'd expected. The plates in his jaw would make him ache sometimes, and he'd have to stop and start, but he suspected Nana preferred it that way. It made the experience last longer, and Nana liked his pleasure languid and unhurried.

Stopping outside the door to his room, Alex pulled his keycard from his pocket and let himself in, closing the door behind him. The room was empty, but Alex could hear the water running in the bathroom. He crossed the floor and dropped his keycard on the nightstand, next to the haphazard pile of cash. He knew without counting it that it would be two thousand dollars, and what that paid for. Good money for a night's work. Alex took the money, shoving it into his pocket before sitting on the edge of the bed to take off his sneakers.

For a while, Alex had wondered why Nana did this. Nana was a catch by anybody's standards, he could easily have just gotten himself a boyfriend. While he had complete access to Alex's body at this point, a boyfriend would have provided him with a lot of things beyond the sexual, things that Alex just couldn't give him even if he'd wanted to, and it would have saved him a lot of money. Alex was beginning to make sense of it now though; there were certain expectations on Nana. Royalty or not, Nana's family were clearly in an influential position. He was expected to carry on his family line, and to do so respectably. Fathering a few bastard children wouldn't be enough, he would have to marry and produce those children in a way society deemed acceptable. Nana indulged his desires, but Alex didn't think Nana wanted to give himself a taste of what an actual relationship with a man would be like. Not when he would either have to end it or keep the whole thing as some kind of dirty little secret in order to fulfil his obligations. It was both tragic and ridiculous to Alex that in an age when most people were slowly gaining more freedoms, there were more restrictions on Nana than any of his forebears had been forced to shoulder. There was something else too - Alex couldn't help feeling that Nana wasn't prepared to accept the level of vulnerability a real relationship would bring.

In a way, Alex was glad he could give Nana as much as he did. Sometimes he even enjoyed it; Nana liked to treat him well, and sometimes Alex's body would respond despite Nana not being his preferred gender. Occasionally Alex even got off on Nana fucking him, and though Nana loved it when that happened, it wasn't a dealbreaker when Alex's cock remained stubbornly flaccid and uninterested in the proceedings, which was a good thing because that was most of the time. Alex had tried pretending to himself for a while that he did this for Nana's sake, but really he'd always known he did it all for the money.

Alex had always regarded prostitutes of both sexes with a certain amount of disdain. He didn't view them with the outright contempt that a lot of people seemed to, but there had always been a division in his head between prostitutes and 'real' people. The biggest shock about this whole situation for him had been the realisation that he was exactly the same as he'd been before any of it had started. He'd felt no shame, or shift in his self-worth. He hadn't so much as questioned his masculinity, and while Alex had always been less backward about that sort of thing than most of his coworkers, it still surprised him that his self image had been able to glide through this with such ease. It was something he did, not something he was.

He was grateful that Nana also understood he was still the same person, because letting Nana fuck him had entailed a certain amount of vulnerability, something Alex wasn't at all used to. Nana never used that small degree of psychological control - or volumes of money Alex couldn't refuse - to pressurise Alex when he didn't feel like going along with it for whatever reason, or took Alex's consent for granted. If Alex left the cash on the nightstand, Nana wouldn't mention it. It was important to Nana that they were friends, and he wouldn't do anything to jeopardise the regard Alex held him in.

Jimmy understood too; not a word had been said, but Alex knew his more frequent rooming with Nana and increased spending hadn't gone unnoticed, and he appreciated the fact that Jimmy's attitude toward him hadn't changed at all. Alex had his suspicions that Jimmy was more familiar with his position with Nana than he let on.

The bathroom door opened, and Nana emerged with a towel wrapped around his waist. Alex saw his eyes flick over to the nightstand, and the barely perceptible softening of his features when he saw the money was gone. For the hundredth time, Alex was reminded how lucky he was to be in this situation with Nana rather than somebody else, and he was struck by the desire to bypass their usual smalltalk and get into bed so he could give Nana what he'd paid for. He might be doing it for the money, but making Nana happy was far from meaningless for him.

Nana grinned widely. "Did you get our inebriated friend off to bed without him starting any fights?"

"Yeah, he's unconscious and probably doing his best impression of a pneumatic drill by now." Alex smiled, pulling his T-shirt off and throwing it to the floor. "Ready for bed?"

Nana raised an eyebrow. "You seem awfully eager."

"Is that bad?" Alex reached for his belt, amused by the way Nana's eyes followed the progress of his fingers hungrily. "I got the impression you like it when I'm enthusiastic."

"I do, I like it a lot." Nana strode across the room, reaching forward to push Alex's hands away from his belt and take over the task of undoing the buckle. Nana liked to undress Alex slowly, marvelling at every inch of exposed skin as though it was the first time he'd ever seen it. Alex laid his hands on Nana's shoulders, still damp and warm from the hot water of the shower, knowing how much pleasure Nana took from such small gestures when Alex initiated them. Nana leaned in for a kiss, his lips pressing almost reverently against Alex's invitingly half-open mouth before his tongue slid inside. It was a kiss full of affection and respect; not at all the kind of kiss one would bestow on a whore.

All diamonds are forever, but some have a higher carat than others.


End file.
